Advancing Climate-adaptive Designs (Phase II)

The Estuary Program and NEIWPCC supports design consultants to partner with a community to select elements from their Climate-adaptive Design studio and develop them to an implementable, community supported project.

Design elements chosen for the project must meet the goals of the Climate-adaptive Design process to increase community resilience to sea-level rise and climate change through an engaged stakeholder process, while considering technical, regulatory and funding feasibility. Projects must also enhance habitat value while reducing the impacts of shoreline and/or stormwater flooding.

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Process

  • Develop an inclusive stakeholder engagement strategy to use throughout
  • Review student concepts from the Climate-adaptive Design Studio to work from
  • Conduct a site analysis and compile baseline data and climate projections
  • Draft project designs for community and regulatory review
  • Incorporate feedback to complete project design and implementation plan

Completed projects

Village of Ossining (2022)

Ossining’s riverfront location is understood to be both a great asset and a significant challenge, as documented in the Westchester County Hazard Mitigation Plan. Ossining's waterfront has experienced significant damages from periodic waterfront flooding due to storms, high tides, and sea level rise (Westchester County 2015).

Through the community’s experience and the collective planning for risk reduction and greater resilience, Ossining has a solid foundation of knowledge regarding sea level rise and floodplain adaptation approaches. Both the Town & Village of Ossining are moving forward with the first steps to reduce risk and improve resilience with professional engineering support. In October 2021, Henningson, Durham and Richardson Architecture and Engineering, P.C. (HDR) was awarded a Hudson River Estuary Program (HREP) grant (administered through NEIWPCC) to conduct stakeholder engagement, site assessment activities, and the preliminary design for shoreline improvements with cultural/educational amenities that would build upon the concepts and design ideas developed by the CAD Studio students.

Stakeholder feedback to HDR included:

  • Promote accessibility and connectivity throughout the two parks.
  • Intentionally design the green space with native plants.
  • A wide range of residents enjoy the waterfront from the beach to programmed events like free concerts and yoga.
  • From kayaking to fishing, it is important to promote in-water activities and improve the water quality.

Final project features include:

  • the creation of marsh along the waterfront
  • a waterfront esplanade
  • the use of reef balls to create aquatic habitat and provide wave attenuation.

HDR's Ossining Shoreline Revitalization Project was completed in 2022.  Learn more about the project from the Virtual Open House StoryMap on Green Ossining's website or watch a video of the final project presentation.

City of Hudson's Henry Hudson Riverfront Park (2022)

Hudson Valley Collaborative partnered with the City of Hudson to reimagine the waterfront at Henry Hudson Riverfront Park, a 7 acre park.

The overall vision of the project was to expand the park, prioritize pedestrians, enhance nature, and design for inclusion. The design proposes five main strategies to accomplish this:

  • Transform underutilized areas into new, green park space for everyone, and strategically raise infrastructure above the projected 2100 high tide level.
  • Raise shoreline walkways that would otherwise be inundated by water, so the existing and new proposed shoreline features remain accessible now and in the future.
  • Plan for migration of wetland ecology as the river level rises.

To accomplish these goals, the plan proposed new boardwalks, accessible pathways, a terraced amphitheater, new water access points, wetlands to support biodiversity, and other strategies.

The process included an intensive community engagement strategy to create dialogue and receive feedback from the community.  A series of public events, focus groups, advisory meetings, youth stewardship opportunities, and stakeholder meetings allowed conversation about important topics concerning the Hudson waterfront. 

You can read the full report here.

 

Kingston Point Climate-adaptive Beach with Wetland Cove (2020)

Watch: Sustainable Shorelines webinar on completed CaD Phase II projects in Kingston and Piermont

Supermass Studio, along with emphas!s design and EDesign Dynamics, partnered with the City of Kingston to reimagine the Kingston Point Beach. The overall vision of the project is to create a well connected and resilient Kingston Point which can remain a viable public and natural asset for Kingston for decades to come. The completed project design proposes a reinforced beach and wetland cove at Kingston Point that will:

  • Protect the many existing recreational assets including the public beach, kayak launch, and beach volleyball, and introducing a new pier access point,
  • Enhance habitat with upland forest, meadow, wetland park, and intertidal wetland, and
  • Use nature-based solutions to provide coastal protection, including a living shoreline, berm, living breakwater, and eco-concrete blocks.

Emphas!s design worked with the City of Kingston to "co-brand" their many waterfront projects under Weaving the Waterfront to help communicate a more holistic approach to the public. They hosted a public, outdoor kick-off event where each project displayed poster boards and a survey collected community input. The event included a tour along the waterfront with consultants representing and interpreting their individual projects. See the City's outreach and engagement website for this project for more information.

You can download the Final Kingston Point Beach CaD II Design Report online.

Piermont Living Shoreline (2020)

HDR partnered with the Village of Piermont to redesign the coastal area just north of the pier near Parelli Park. Based on stakeholder input and CaD Principals (see below), four overarching design goals emerged for the project:

  • Design a self-sustaining living shoreline feature that serves as a model for other communities along the Hudson interested in climate adaptation,
  • Stabilize the existing shoreline north of the Piermont Pier and East of Parelli Park to Flywheel Park,
  • Develop intertidal and subtidal habitat features to attenuate wave energy and simultaneously benefit fish, shellfish and other wildlife, and
  • Maintain and enhance recreational access to the river and its shoreline habitats while including educational and interpretive elements that effectively engage the public.

To accomplish these goals, the completed project design proposes reinforcing the existing submerged rock jetty, providing multiple access points to the river including a beach access for kayaks, vegetated marsh plantings in the intertidal zone, and a gradually sloping revetment planted with native vegetation to help protect the existing shoreline from erosion along Flywheel Park. Also, a residential demonstration planting garden in Parelli Park with native species, interpretive signage and other recreational upgrades.

You can download the Final Piermont Living Shoreline CaD II Design Report online.

Principles of Climate-adaptive Design

The design process and implementable project developed through this work should:

  • Meet the standards for receiving all applicable state and local permits and be justifiable as reasonable and necessary 
  • Consider up-to-date maps and data (see links below for regional climate projections and mappers for flooding and tidal wetland migration, etc.) on current and future projected conditions 
  • Adequately and cost-effectively withstand flood and erosion risk now and over the life of the project 
  • Be cost-effective over the long term given operation, ongoing maintenance and replacement costs 
  • Maintain and add ecological value to the site(s) by conserving or restoring existing natural features and their potential pathways to migrate over time (for example, wetlands moving upland with sea-level rise) 
  • Improve or create water-dependent or water-enhanced uses and/or relocate water independent uses out of risk areas 
  • Aim to improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and mitigate negative impacts like green gentrification
  • Create new opportunities for public access, education and/or interpretation that can be enjoyed throughout the year 
  • Address contaminated soils, brown fields, etc.

Concepts and Design Products from Climate-adaptive Design Studio (Phase I)

Concepts and Design Products from Climate-adaptive Design Studio (Phase I)

Host Community

Student Design Boards*

Lookbook

Public Exhibition Posters

ArcGIS StoryMaps
Village of CatskillStudent design board (1)   
City of HudsonStudent design boards (4)   
City of Kingston

Rondout East Strand Student design boards (8)

Block Park Student design boards (5)

Kingston Point Student design boards (8)

Kingston Lookbook Kingston Public Exhibition Posters
Town and Village of OssiningStudent design boards (10)Ossining LookbookOssining Public Exhibition Posters 
Village of PiermontStudent design boards (5) Piermont Public Exhibition Posters  
City of PoughkeepsieStudent design boards (14)Poughkeepsie Lookbook Poughkeepsie Public Exhibition PostersPoughkeepsie StoryMap
Village of TarrytownStudent design boards (12)Tarrytown LookbookTarrytown Public Exhibition PostersTarrytown StoryMap

*To download, click right arrow on the image for each student design board and select “Download the Full PDF”

Additional Guidance and Resources for the Hudson Valley Region